Cuddly as a Porcupine
by Adriana Snow
Summary: In The Doctor's experience, River had always fit into his arms perfectly. She was always warm and soft and (dare he say) cuddly. However, it turns out, snuggling with a young River Song is comparable to having an agitated porcupine in his bed. Student!River. Older!Doctor. Fairly Fluffy.


**Author's Note: I wrote the summary for this in my head and I liked it so much that I decided to write a story to fit it. River is pretty young although closer to "The Wedding of River Song" than "Let's Kill Hitler." The Doctor is probably pre-"Angles Take Manhattan," but post everything before that.**

"So now what?" River asked sitting up in bed after catching her breath. The Doctor peered up at her horrified, sprawled out in the same position he'd been in when she'd rolled off of him.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he groaned. They'd just spent 72 hours strait trying to stop a dictator from blowing up his own world and once they'd gotten back to the TARDIS, River had dragged him to their bedroom to have a 'yay we didn't die' romp in the sheets. Which was all well and good, but despite the fact that, as a Time Lord, he slept less than most, he still needed to have a couple of hours of rest every so often.

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Aren't you tired?" he asked rolling over to his side.

"I don't know. I guess," she responded frowning, "but I can keep going for a while."

"Well, I can't," he told her firmly. "I'm going to sleep."

She suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Oh, okay. I'll just go then?"

Right. She was young. He'd almost forgotten in the midst of the running and…other things. Older River would not have even considered leaving. In fact, there were many times when she'd commandeered the bed without him even knowing until he stumbled in during the middle of the night and laid on top of her, to her great amusement once she was awake enough to figure out what had happened. That River, if he told her he was going to sleep, would have immediately been curled up against him, soft and warm and content to lay there with him for a couple hours even if she wasn't tired herself.

This River, on the other hand, was not quite comfortable with demanding her position in his life, and so, it was his job to invite her in.

"No, of course you don't have to go," he made sure to keep his voice light and open, "go ahead and lay down." She still looked unsure, but laid down at his invitation though she stayed a few inches away from him instead of snuggling up against him as he was used to. He contemplated taking the initiative himself, but decided that he should let her get comfortable first. He did however sit up and kiss her goodnight before turning of the light on the nightstand.

He closed his eyes relaxing into the bed. "Doctor?" River said from beside him.

"Yeah?"

"My professor says that aliens first visited earth during the Roman Empire, is that true?"

"No," he state.

"How do you know?"

"I'm an alien. I was on Earth before then."

"Oh," she responded. "Doctor?"

"Hmmm?"

"Did Silurians really hibernate under the Earth's surface for thousands of years or was that just a fable?" Blimey, she was young if she didn't even know about Silurians yet.

"Did you see any running around when you lived in the 20th and 21st century?"

"No."

"Then yes they did," he thought about it a bit, "actually your parents met some after they were temporarily woken up by a drill in the 21st century."

"Really? I'll have to ask them about it the next time I see them. We're doing a unit on the Silurian species in my Earth history class."

"I'll introduce you to Madame Vastra. She's a Silurian friend of mine. I'm sure you'll hit it off," he promised. "She lives in Victoria London."

"I thought they were all hibernating then."

"Well, yes, but there was a thing and… can we talk about this in the morning?" he yawned.

"Yeah, sure," she said. She was quiet for a few minutes before shifting restlessly. "Doctor?"

"Go to sleep, River."

He waited for her to say something else, but nothing came in a few minutes. He sighed allowing his exhaustion to lull him into a doze.

Next to him, River stared at the ceiling listening to his breaths even out as he fell asleep. She was tired, but she didn't feel like she would be falling asleep any time soon. In fact, she felt rather anxious. Needing to move, she shifted onto her side. That actually made her even more uncomfortable so she flipped to her stomach. She laid her head on her arms, but that cut off the blood flow and they started to tingle so she put them at her side. However, then her neck started to ache so she flipped over to the other side. Hugging her legs in a fetal position helped for a few moments, but then she started to feel too constricted and stretched her legs out. Then, that felt awkward, so she rolled back onto her back. She was starting to feel hot so she kicked off the covers, but that was too cold so she stuck one leg back underneath the sheets. She flipped back to her side and then to the other. The foot outside of the covers got cold, but she was hot overall so she switched legs so that the cold was under the covers, but there was still one leg in the open air.

"Please. Stop." River froze at his voice glancing over at him. His eyes were still closed making him look asleep, but he obviously wasn't.

"Sorry," she whispered. He humphed in acknowledgment. She focused on staying absolutely still after that, wiggling her toes and wringing her hands to try to release some of her energy.

He sighed and blinked open his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"I can feel your tension," he stated. She looked away from him and was about to apologize before he opened his arms a little bit. "Come here," he said realizing that waiting for her to make the first move might not be the best option. She inched a bit closer to him and then stopped. He cocked one of his almost non-existent eyebrows and she closed the gap the rest of the way so their faces were almost touching.

"Um," she said. It was a bit of an awkward position. There was nowhere to put her arms other than between their bodies and she'd put her face far too close to his for comfort.

"Try turning the other way," he suggested, his breath blowing over her nose.

"Right. Okay." She rolled over perhaps a little too quickly managing to elbow him in the stomach. She winced and settled herself on her other side. He didn't mention the jab to the gut, but her face flamed anyway. His arms wrapped around her from behind and he pulled her back towards him until they lined up in a much less awkward position.

"There that's better," he breathed pressing a few kisses to her neck. She relaxed slightly at the feel of his lips on her skin, but not much.

There were a few moments of silence, him with his arms around her and her still tense.

"Relax," he instructed, poking her in the side. She jumped more than she should have at such a gesture and her head snapped back into his face. One of his hands left her waist to poke at his nose, making sure there was no blood and she wanted to slam her own head into a wall.

"Sorry."

He sighed. "It's fine, but could you please try to relax?"

"Yeah, okay." She took a calming breath as he replaced his hand on her waist. 'Focus on him,' she thought to herself concentrating on the feel of his breath tickling the back of her neck. Slowly she felt the tightness in her shoulders start to drain.

He gave a pleased hum when he felt some of the tension leave her and tightened his arms around her. His hand gently stroked her arm and her eyes closed when he pressed his lips to her neck again. She drifted into a tolerable state of relaxation and, although she was nowhere near being able to drift off to sleep, she thought she could probably fake it until he finished resting.

After a while, he stopped his gentle touches and his breath became regular against her ear. When she was sure he was asleep, she let her eyes pop back open to stare at the wall across from her. His bedroom was the same color as the TARIDS was on the outside and glowed faintly even in the darkness. The TARDIS thrummed around them.

The TARDIS humming was a sound River found she liked a great deal. She imagined hearing it was what it felt like for a small child to be held against their parent's chest so they could hear the adult's heartbeat. Not that she would know.

She tried to clamp down on the thought, to shove it back into the corner of her mind where it belonged, but she couldn't. This is what she hated about the night: you couldn't hide from your nightmares. A familiar, dull ache that had been her companion on bad nights since her childhood started in her chest. The pain of a hundred lonely nights where she just wanted her mum and dad bore down on her. She bit down on her lip until she tasted blood.

"Please tell me what's wrong," the Doctor murmured sleepily in her ear. She realized with horror that she had dug her fingernails into his forearm.

"I'm sorry." She released her hold on him and sat up. "I should go."

"Hey," he grabbed her arm when she tried to get out of the bed. She didn't look at him. "Tell me how to fix it."

"You can't "fix it". It's not an "it" you can fix. It's just… It's me." He pulled her towards him until she was next to him again. "I can't do this sort of thing."

"What sort of thing?" he asked rubbing circles on her back.

"This!" she said gesturing at the room, "sleeping here."

"With me?"

"No," she said quickly, "well yes, but not because…" She stopped.

"Why River?"

"Because... because I have nightmares," she murmured. She hadn't actually realized that was where her anxiety stemmed from until it popped out of her mouth. "I have nightmares and I don't want you to see that and if I relax enough, I'll fall asleep and…" she trailed off looking at her hands.

"I understand."

"I don't think you do."

"You have the right to have nightmares, River," he told her. She clenched her jaw. "Listen to me," he lifted a hand to turn her face towards him, "I will never judge you for having nightmares. After what you've gone through in your life, you get to have some nightmares. If you have a nightmare when we are in bed with each other, it would be my privilege to help comfort you when you wake, but if you're too self-conscious, the TARDIS can make a room for you tonight so you can get some sleep."

She wasn't sure what to say so she just leaned up and kissed him. His hand slid up her shoulder and into her hair to pull her closer, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. After a few minutes, she pulled back.

"I don't know," she confessed. "I don't know what I want."

"How about we not go to sleep right now?" he suggested. She gave him a considering smirk. "Not that. We just did that fifteen minutes ago. Give me some time woman." He blushed a deep red and she laughed.

"Well what do you suggest we do in a bed that doesn't involve sleeping or shagging?"

He considered her. "Roll onto your stomach," he told her.

"Sounds like fun."

"Stop it." She flashed him a cheeky grin, but positioned herself anyway.

He kissed the back of her head and then brushed the hair off her shoulders. His hands gently stroked up her back and then he began massaging the base of her neck. She sighed letting her eyes drift closed. She imagined that he must have done this to some older version of her because he knew just where to touch her to make her melt into the bed.

"You're pretty good with your fingers Sweetie," she informed him while he moved down her back.

"Shush," he admonished.

She puffed out an amused breath and then moaned when he hit a spot on her lower back with just enough pressure. When he got to the base of her back, he started moving back up, massaging harder this time now that the worst kinks were out. She lost count of how many times he repeated the pattern, her brain starting to fuzz. She yawned into the pillow.

"You can go to sleep, River," The Doctor told her bending down to kiss her behind the ear, "It's alright."

She was more relaxed than she could ever remember being in her entire life and so it wasn't that difficult to let herself be lulled into sleep by his hands. In a few minutes, she was snoring softly.

The Doctor smiled rolling onto his side of the bed. River made a sleepy sound when he nudged her onto her side, but didn't wake as he put his arms around her. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and she puffed out a breath cuddling back against him.


End file.
